Globaldiscoveryvacations Reviews 8

My family has been with Global since the very start. In the beginning, they were very helpful and offered great selection of properties and wonderful locations. You only pay your yearly membership fee if you intend to use it. My week stay in a condo usually averages about $250 a week for a one bedroom during prime season. That fee includes my prorated yearly fee as well as all other fees associated with the reservation. I have used all of my weeks every year for over 10 years. Every 8ish years however, they make your existing membership worthless by offering you little to no property choices and extort you to pay expensive upgrade fees, in order to have access to the same properties that you had access to a year ago. Not only do you have to pay thousands for upgrades, your yearly membership goes up as well as processing fees. The most recent extortion fee was $8000 lump sum payment where I would have access to more properties and increase my bargaining stars from 8 to 12. My yearly fee would go up; my processing fees would go up as well. The condo I used to pay $250 a week for now doubles to about $500 a week, considering I prorated my extortion charge over eight years. Compared to a lot of time shares, this is still a really great travel option. I honestly don’t know how it can be legal to operate a business this way. I did pay the extortion fee once. I’m up for extortion again but can’t afford the new fees. I attended the upgrade meeting only to find out that there are three different levels of upgrades - preferred, premier and elite. Are you kidding me??? My suggestion is do your homework before buying into this program. Find out when their last upgrade was to their general members. You may just buy and be faced with an extortion scheme shortly after you purchase.

We purchased the vacation club about 10- 12 yrs ago (we can’t remember what yr). It has been by far the best thing we have done for ourselves regarding our past travel memories and for our future memories w/ family, kids- now adult kids, & now grandkids. We try to get a 2 bedroom property (and almost always do) and we also travel w/ friends & split the cost 2 ways so it ends up being a win win for everyone at a fantastic cost (vs an ABnB or a hotel room). We have been to Cape Cod shore, the Berkshires in MA, Sedona AZ, Scottsdale AZ, a ski resort at Greek Peak NY, Myrtle Beach SC, Carlsbad CA, Florida’s Gulf coast, and New Orleans LA, Many repeats, & The list goes on. We have friends who have traveled w/ us asking “how is it possible” & we say “no idea but we aren’t asking” lol - it’s our best kept secret - no lie. I am amazed at some of these negative comments mentioning seemingly odd expectations about their membership - you don’t own these properties people & you have to put the time into learning the ropes of the program. These are “points” (stars) that you can be very creative with to get the most out of your travel. We do about 2 trips a year w/ Global and own 6 stars (I think we upgraded once from our original $3,500 ish). We might have less than $7k in the game now (?) - I mean what do people expect for over 10 years of traveling for $7k - do the math on all the fantastic resorts we have been to and it would easily be upwards of maybe $20k w/ out Global. We’d never have afforded it. We always use Trip Adviser reviews to gage the properties & only go to 3.5 - 4 star properties choosing only places that get rave reviews - it has never failed us. And we are also blown away by the amazing costumer service when we call for assistance w/ a booking ( I usually don’t need help) I even speak to some of the same reps that were w/ Global when we 1st purchased (Dee ? I think - she is amazingly helpful & pleasant). I don’t know what people are complaining about- the website is not rocket science and I am able to book a year out or just a few months out. To say we are happy and satisfied w/ Global is a huge understatement. Thank you GDV - please keep doing what ever it is you are doing. Peg&TerryV members for many happy years of traveling, thumbs up for us, actually please stay away we’ll keep it all to ourselves lol

My husband and I inherited GDV program from my parents. When they were living they would book vacations for the entire family - about 10-12 people with no problem. We had a sales associate contact us to upgrade to more stars which would give us VIP status, so my husband and I decided to upgrade. We tried to book a vacation for this summer to the Panhandle of Florida a year in advance (June of 2024) for 11 adults and 2 children. I made several calls to GDV to follow up with the request GDV "customer service" told me they would notify me with updates however I received no updates. The sale representative stated "he did not have any problems booking vacations for his entire family" We indicated we have a large number we travel with - he assured us it would not be a problem (verbally of course)
On June 1, 2025 I receive an email stating our beach reservation had been cancelled. When I called to speak with someone regarding the issue I was informed there was nothing available for our request. The lady I spoke with on 06/13/2025 (Miranda - I believe) said again there were no 2 or 3 bedroom accommodations available for our request and they could not guarantee those type accommodations. I informed the lady with the complaint department if we could not get the accommodations needed the VIP program was not work the money we paid to upgrade. She suggested vacationing outside of the summer months, which is not acceptable as we have grandchildren in school. The entire experience is horrible. We have been very disappointed to say the least with the program. I requested to cancel the entire program including the additional 4 weeks purchased about a year ago and was informed it is not possible so I am stuck paying $146.00 per month for the next couple years for something our family cannot use.

Our experience with Global Discovery Vacations was incredibly disappointing and frankly disturbing. During the timeshare presentation, my family and I—who are Asian—were treated with clear racial profiling. We were followed around in the parking lot by their staff and questioned suspiciously. It got even worse when we were blamed for supposedly being associated with another Indian family who happened to attend the same presentation.

There was absolutely no reason for that kind of treatment. We came in with genuine interest and left feeling targeted and deeply uncomfortable. No one should have to deal with this kind of prejudice, especially in a professional setting.

We strongly advise others—especially those from diverse backgrounds—to avoid this company. The way we were treated was unacceptable and speaks volumes about the lack of respect and cultural sensitivity in their approach.

We have used GDV for about 6 years now, it's def a solid 3.5 - 4 star org. It is still a company and will want to upsell you on additional stars and packages every few years. We've had 5 stars the whole time, never upgraded and have had luck booking 1 year in advance and normally use 1x 2 star short notice local stay. The increases for membership have been minimal, but only based on usage, not yearly like a timeshare would be.

After paying the initial fee years ago that they claimed was a one time fee. Then they blaimed Covid to increase the "one time" membership fee and if we didn't "upgrade" we would have a limited access to properties. Also they are extremely difficult to deal with and refuse to talk to just one spouse. Save your money.

I have been a member for years. They approach you every couple years to upgrade your membership to include more weeks and locations. Now it looks like the locations are limited, they have taken over timeshares with worn out cheap furniture, places that were on before are gone, you need to request a year in advance to have a chance, and then they tell you not all their inventory is know then, but never call back. I traveled off season this year and got better deals outside of this plan.

I was approached and promised an incentive to attend a 90 min time share presentation. I received nothing. Instead, I was given the number to Maui Tickets for Less only to have my calls fwd to a full voicemail and all my text ignored. This company is deceptive in it's sales practices. Beware....